Resistance: Rebirth
by The Man Who Has No Life
Summary: It's hard to believe, but I, a private who's been in the army for 2 months, survived being infected with the Chimeran virus. A question is, while my body survived the process but did my mind? No sex, and after the second chapter somethings get toned down.
1. Infected

**Before you start reading, this takes place right after the first level of Resistance 2, and the two year gap between it and the the rest of the game.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Resistance series, Chimera, or anything in the games, Insomniac does. I do not make any money off of this fiction either... but the characters not mentioned in the game belong to me and I'd be more than happy to loan them to anyone if they asked me to. Just ask me for their personality and I'll give you the best description that I can.**

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Chapter 1: I'm infected!

Location: Chimera Conversion Center in unknown American town.

Date: 12/04/51

Where the hell was I? My comrades...? Oh that's right, those damned Crawlers got them, got _me_! Wait, how was I still alive then? The soldier thought for a few seconds, then remembered the samples of a vaccine he and some of his comrades took to try to find a way to lessen the effects of the Chimeran virus, but saying that it may have different results compared to the others. When he asked who the 'others' were, they didn't answer and told the next person to come in for injection. He was guessing his sample worked, but to be honest, he outran the thousands of crawling insects, mostly focusing on the hundreds of others to infect and maybe had a half dozen inside of him by now, otherwise he'd still be unconscious.

Sitting up, he saw that he was in a rather small, metal room with several unconscious bodies and low footsteps getting closer. He must have been in one of those Conversion Centers the monsters were famous for. Deciding he would probably be killed if he stayed sitting up, he quickly laid back down and pretended to be unconscious, but with an eye cracked open slightly. Something humanoid entered the room, that's right, not human, humanoid!

It looked like a person, but was completely bald all over, had the standard Chimera cooling pack inserted into it's back, tight skin wrapped around it's lean muscles, and amphibious hands, but the rest he couldn't make out the details below the waist. _Not like it probably has anything down there anyway_, he added mentally with a smirk threatening to come.

It grabbed an unconscious soldier, put them over it's shoulder and left the room. Sighing, he sat up and began feeling around in his boot for the standard combat knife all soldiers were issued with. He grinned when he felt it was still there, pulled it out, and got onto his hands and knees then began crawling towards the only exit to the small room, the door that freakish man-like Chimera had gone into. He peeked around the corner to see the thing was busy dragging it over to a large, transparent pipe to notice his presence, he ran behind one of the tables in the room and stayed low to hide his presence.

_"Child..."_

Where the hell did that come from?

_"Help..."_

No way in hell was he imagining that. It didn't sound human, but it did sound like it was begging for help. Not knowing much about the enemy was true, it did leave you at a disadvantage.

_"SCREEE!!!"_

"AW SHIT!" he screamed as something landed on his back. He felt several sharp objects sink into his shoulder and he nearly screamed again, but moved through it and did the only thing that came to mind. He let his body fall, or rather threw, himself back-first into the ground. Whatever was on his back screamed in pain, and he felt vibrations go into his shoulder. That thing was biting him! No, worse, it was trying to EAT him!

"You son of a bitch!" his voice faltered towards the end, mostly out of fear than real anger at being bitten, he twisted around and stabbed the thing in the throat, then began to twist the knife around. The creature tried to pull his hands away, but with a simple submissive pin of his legs on it's and his arms pinning the alien's arms down, it couldn't escape. The thing's loud screaming was going to alert attention of it's comrades if it went on long enough, so he had to finish this quickly. The knife wasn't killing it fast enough, so he decided to try another way of making it shut up. He put his hand over the thing's forehead and smashed the back of it's scalp into the floor. Okay, _that _shut it up.

This would have been faster if he didn't drop his gun while running away from those damned Crawlers, but what could he do about something that already happened? Like they'd even let him keep his gun anyway.

_"...Daedalus..."_

"..... Hello?"

_"Trapped..."_

This was going to get him nowhere... speaking of which, that's where the voice was coming from. Nowhere, almost like it was from inside of his own mind.

_"Humans must die!"_

He was starting to get worried, anyone would be if they heard voices that came from no where. Especially if that voice was saying that humans deserved to die! Being a mentally unstable soldier in an enemy base... if he didn't get it togethor he'd be dead in the next hour or less. Focusing on the two doors next to him, parallel to each other.

_"Left."_

_"No fuckin' way am I listening to a voice in my head!"_

_"Right... die..."_

_".... Okay."_ the soldier replied submissively. Turning to his left, he pressed his hand to the pressure pad on the door. Nothing in there except for a straight-forward hallway with a single door at the end. He continued on through that door.... and the next one that turned only to the right... another straight-forward hallway.... this was getting very boring very quickly.

_"Traitor! We were hear before you had that body!"_

Complete sentences? Wow, so it wasn't just able to say 2 words and stop for a few seconds. But what did it mean by _traitor_? Deciding it probably wasn't important, he entered the next room and saw something that freaked him out enough to make him stare at it. A dozen of those Hybrid Chimera, ones that looked human but had distorted head proportions, claws, and extra eyes on the sides of their heads, were eating bodies. Not all of the bodies were human, no, they were of other Hybrids and some of those things that he just killed a few minutes ago. It looked like they were too busy eating to notice his presence, so he slowly edged towards the next door, one to the left of him in the large room he and the cannibals were in. Something moves too fast in a calm environment causes it to catch the observer's eye. He even had to duck behind some crates of Chimera and Human weapons that were stacked on top of each other. He looked over to the door, it was one that required pressure near it to open, unlike the others that he had to press his hand against to open, but it would still make enough noise to draw those things's attention to his position.

_".... I can help you."_ the voice said, coming from nowhere again.

_"How?"_ the soldier asked, suspicious of what it wanted.

_"You have to promise to help me though."_ it replied, he could imagine it smiling.... if it really had a face.

_".... Fine.",_ he admitted defeatidly. In truth, he was going to leave where-ever that voice was coming from if it wasn't just a part of his fatigued mind.

He was suspicious of what the voice really was, so he was starting to consider where it was coming from. Since he was infected and slowly becoming one of them, maybe it was another infected person? No, they wouldn't have the mental capabilities to do that, even if they were partially infected. Maybe one who was more Chimera than human...

He looked to his left and noticed the bite marks in his uniform were there, but no blood or cuts were present. Yep, definitely infected. He didn't know much about the Chimera except that they were unnaturally strong and healed faster than a normal human could.

A high pitched roar tore him away from his thoughts. It sounded like a car screeching on asphalt and being echoed by the large rooms in the facility. After a few seconds, he pulled his hands away from his throbbing ears to hear that it had stopped. He peeked around the crates of ammo to see that the Hybrids were gone, most likely through the door on the side of the room that they occupied to investigate the noise, but one had left it's unfinished meal there. Staring at the bloody human carcass for a few seconds, he licked his lips then mentally cursed at himself. He wasn't a cannibal damn it!! Going over to the door that he intended to use before, but he couldn't deny that the bodies were getting strange and confusing feelings out of him, but he'd ignore them for now... no, for the rest of his life. He stopped for a minute, then turned around to stare at the green, metal triangular crate that had weapons in it. Glancing down at the knife in his right hand, he sighed and picked the lock on the highest crate. Pulling out a Carbine, he smiled to himself, glad to be reunited with an old friend... one that he'd used to kill some people and a few Chimera with... mostly human beings with, but still a friend.

_"I helped you now you help me."_ the voice came back again.

_"And how do I help you?"_ the soldier replied.

_"By letting me out, keep going straight-forward until you reach a long hallway with glass cells. Keep going until you see see this..."_, the words A-17 flashed in his mind surrounded by yellow on all sides _"... and you will see me. The... Hybrids took a shortcut, so you had best be prepared to deal with them when you get to my area."_

_".... What are you?"_ the soldier asked, remembering the high-pitched whining.

_"....."_

Not getting a reply, he bitterly realized he didn't have a choice but to listen to the mysterious voice. But he was starting to wonder if he'd like what the thing looked like. Probably a Chimera or one of those Cloven things he heard other soldiers talking about. Staring at the other crates, he saw that the Chimeran ones had large locks on them with a number pad with characters he couldn't understand. He remembered once when one of his comrades found a box like this, tried to break the lock to get at the weaponry inside, and the box exploded, taking both of his arms and one of his legs with him.

"......"

The soldier turned the other way and walked through the automatic doors.

_**Several Minutes Later..**_

He was walking straight forward through the hallways and to put it bluntly, he was getting bored. He knew that the higher-ups had great patience, but he was just a private for Christ's sake... funny, he doubted anyone believed that the saviour of the world even existed anymore. Not even the hardcore Christians, hell, maybe no one believed that their gods were coming for them. Well, that Hale fellow he heard about saved Britain.

_"Human..."_

_"What now? I'm coming to get you! Just hold on for an... hour?",_ he wasn't joking, this place seemed to be insanely long for a small base. It was taken over... how long ago? According to the information they gave him, it was only about 2 weeks, but there was no way of telling how long he'd been knocked out and how much they might have added in that time.

_"Human... he will try to kill you."_

_"And who would that be?"_

_"... My leader."_

_"And who?"_

_"D--"_

Static interrupted the voice.

He looked down at the radio strapped to his belt loop. He couldn't believe that he didn't check for that! Just 2 months in the army and he already made a rookie mistake... no, a rookie would have checked their radio. Maybe he wasn't the best soldier of them all, but who wouldn't try to get the hell out of there first if they found themselves in a place with things that wanted to eat their organs on a silver plate? Well, someone who bothered to check their radio, but that might cost them their lives. And just be plain --

_"Hello?" _a voice on the radio said.

Realizing that this person might be his only way of escape, he picked it up and answered.

_"This is Private Micheal Barklen reporting in. Who are you?"_ the soldier, Micheal, said.

_"You're with the military? My name is Joey Cartland, I used to be in the forces myself. Anyway, where are you?! We have 50 refugees here and only 20 soldiers remaining. We need all the help we can get!"_, Joey said.

_"Inside of a Conversion Center... but I'm not infected yet."_ he replied with a lie.

_"Good... since you're a human I guess you can be trusted. Our camp is near the large river on the south side of town. It's in one of the warehouses it's number... 12"_ the Joey replied.

"_I'll be there as soon as I escape"_, the soldier said, then added as a thought, _"...if I escape."_

Clicking off the radio, he put it back on his belt loop and began heading for the door straight ahead of him.

He stopped just before he reached it and fell to his knees

He felt something behind his eyes start to swell up and start pushing them out. He could feel something... no _somethings_ moving under his clothes, biting the sensitive flesh beneath. It felt like when those Crawlers were over his body, but whatever these were were much, _much_ bigger! Looking at his hands on the ground, he realized his hands were long and scaly with curved, bird-like claws coming out.

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!" he screamed, but he didn't care if anyone heard him.

He could see a bright flash of gold-yellow in front of his eyes before he blacked out.

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**So, how did you like it? I know some things felt rushed and gobbled together but I couldn't think of ways to fix them. It might not be the best but it's the first thing I wrote in a long time. Leave any kind of review, even short ones that tell me it's good, negatives ones are okay, but tell me what I could do to improve my writing. In case you don't know what a flame is, it's basically a review that says that your creation is bad but doesn't explain why. If I like something, I try to explain why to my best ability... at least give me something for inspiration.**


	2. Now I get backup?

I will try to update sooner than last time. Just need to organize a little... and it wasn't _completely _my fault. I had to do a lot of stuff in a short amount of time or suffer the consequences. And a friend of mine (I consider them a friend anyway...) said that I would finish updating when I finished. And besides... this is pretty fast compared to other people. And I've decided to rename the story, only because I didn't want a deceptive title, it's kind of hard to explain. And this chapter's almost 4 and a half times as long as the first chapter. Over 8,500 words...

Anyway, I'm back.

I decided this chapter needed a major rewrite... after all, how could I turn in a sloppy piece of work to people who don't need to read it? Oh, and if you have the time, read Angel Commando's **Dominance **and Bleeding Omega's **Rise of the Chimera** and any other work he's going to release about Resistance. If you don't... well, you're missing out on some quality work, and I'd feel pity on you.

And to be clear, hybrid means a person who's infected with the virus but isn't converted yet, while Hybrid is a type of Chimera that's been fully converted into the Chimeran ranks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resistance, Insomniac does...

And if I offend anyone in this story, I didn't mean to. Oh, and if the characters have the same names as real life people, even those that are dead or were well known, it's a coincidence and I didn't mean to take their names... I'm not kidding. I didn't even know who George Bush was for a while... Don't ask how, it just happens. Finally, if this looks like it's a copy of someone else's work, it's just a coincidence.

One more thing... I don't intend anyone to meet any characters from the canon universe, well, there's a high possibility that that will happen, but if it does, it'll probably be a short appearance.

Chapter 2: _Now _I get backup?

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_

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The Hybrid stared at the unconscious human on the ground. The scent was _mostly_ human, the part was that of a Chimera. It could feel the human's unconscious mind trying to make a link with the hive mind, and failing considerably since it wasn't developed enough yet to make one on it's own. It smiled to itself, it's sharp teeth with gaps shining with the coat of saliva covering them as it thought about the human's purpose... Besides being a part of the next step of evolution.

_"Soon... when you wake, you will be praised as a hero for what you've done...",_ of course it was talking about the Chimera... When all of the remaining humans were converted, they would thank the human for serving his purpose.

The Hybrid wasn't the typical, medium-intelligence ones that fought against overwhelming odds just to kill a few humans. Of course not... If it was, then it wouldn't be away from it's intended post. It actually considered itself to be smarter than it was when it was just a soft-skinned human. It nearly laughed as it remembered the times it had been burned and shot, only to be healed a few minutes later and continue on with it's existence. Evolution indeed... but even if the new leader found him useful, it couldn't kill the human because of what it's instincts had made it done.... it was all a part of the master plan.

Besides... it saw some tasty looking uninfected humans in a holding cell a few minutes ago. Those were being used to feed the newly converted. Still... why was this human here, alone? Maybe it just over predicted it's abilities and passed out after refusing to sleep? Not it's problem, it knew that the other Hybrids would smell the Chimeran blood in it, so there was little chance it would be eaten while it was unconscious. It focused on the brown mustache on it's face, never extending pass it's lips and the stubble that was slowly starting to form on it's face.

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Micheal and Alan Barklen sat at the thick legged wooden table, Micheal occasionally shifting his position to not get sore, and his father, Allan, congratulating him on his decision.

"Micheal, I know that you think I'm disappointed in you, but I'm not."

"So you think I shouldn't join the military?"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't... But this is going to help you toughen up... Not that you're already tough"

Micheal's eyes avoided his father's. He wasn't a crybaby... oh no, he wasn't scared of everything. He was scared of _something _though. Something that made no sense since he was an adult damn it!

"Listen son, you were six! That was a long time ago, what I said earlier... I didn't mean it."

"I know dad...", he knew it was true, he'd been drunk before and knew that some of the words that came out were.... hurtful... that didn't really make them lies though. Standing up from his chair, he looked at his father and tried to change the embarrassing subject, "I'm leaving next week, promise you won't let anyone into my room?"

"Okay... Private Barklen.", his father said, a smile on his lips, and raised his hand to salute to his son.

* * *

Micheal's eyes snapped open and he sat up as he woke up from the dream... or was it a flashback?

"Where the hell am I?" he asked as he looked around, he remembered he was in a Chimeran Converison Center, but the room he had passed out in didn't have crates in it. And his throat felt dry... and his stomach was feeling oddly full. But he didn't eat anything, except for a steak before he and the group of refugees were attacked by Crawlers. It was probably just a side-effect of being infected... but he never saw any Hybrids clutching their stomachs before, so maybe the vaccine was the culprit?

_"I knew I should have just asked for guard duty... But if I hadn't, I'd be running around with six eyes and possibly extra organs... although I'm risking my life and might be eaten.... Damn"_, it was true, he, like other people were in lose-lose situations.

Trying to push himself up using his hands, he slipped because the floor was wet for some reason, and his hands were in whatever the wet liquid was. Looking down, expecting to see himself in puddle of water that leaked from an over-head pipe, his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly.

_"Oh my God..."_

His hands were covered in blood.... But he didn't feel any pain anywhere on his body. Even the bite from that weak Chimera was gone, without a trace. Looking around he saw that it wasn't him that was bleeding... It was a dead body. Well... More accurately a skeleton.

Now that he focused on it, and on the crates, he realized that it was the exact same body that he'd seen a while ago. But he left that room... So unless he sleep walked in... Wait... If it was missing most of the flesh he'd seen on it earlier...

Looking at his blood covered palms (already covered since they were in the puddle of blood), he turned his hands around so their backs were facing him, _"Time to find out...",_ he thought, but he had a grim feeling he knew the answer. When he wiped the back of his hands across his mouth, he could see they were covered in blood and pieces of flesh. He'd eaten a _human_ body! A raw human body! Now he'd probably die of food poisoning or something!

There wasn't any reason to tell anyone about this, was there? As long as it only happened this one time, it wouldn't be a problem. For all he knew, he slept-walk back into this room and just fell down in a pile of blood.

_"That's the worst lie I've ever come up with..."_

He could still taste something soft, but solid in his mouth... so it wasn't that unlikely possibility.

But how long until he lost control again? How long until he... Became a rogue and joined the Chimera? What if he turned into--

_"Human! I've been trying to contact you for 50 minutes now!",_ the slightly echoing voice of the creature exclaimed, slightly annoyed.

_"Just hold on.", _ Micheal mentally replied, grabbing his blood-stained Carbine and leaving the room.

_"Humans... So disorganized... That's why your species is losing this war."_

_"So you admit you aren't human!" _Micheal mentally exclaimed, then realized how much his head was beginning to hurt_ ,"And stop talking so loud, I'm getting a headache."_

_"Just come, my... master", _it spat out that word with a hateful tone, _"is starting to suspect that I am a threat to him... Her... It. Soon, it will kill me..."_

_"So... you don't know which gender your master is?"  
_

_".... You're lucky you're needed, or you would be dead by now", _the voice said as it started to fade away towards the end.

Finally glad to have the mysterious voice shut up, he entered a long hallway, with the end being a T-intersection. By the looks of it, the place may have been a prison or something before the Chimera came along... anyway, he needed to find the voice, maybe it wouldn't try to kill him? Well... If not, capture and forcefully assimilate him into the Chimeran ranks. Looking to the side, he saw that he was in the D-section. Not a decorated hallway, just dark-gray metal walls and ceiling, and glass half-domes with hexagon patterns on them. Basically, it made them look like the inside of a beehive or some other insect nest. But it wasn't important what the place looked like... he just needed to get out of there _before_ a seven foot tall trigger-happy monster came around the hallway, and that was all the motivation he needed to keep moving through the long hallway.

"Pl-pleeease....", a pained voice gasped in between words, "Kuh-kill meeee", the voice stuttered.

Micheal just looked around for the source of the voice, and went back to a cell he'd just passed several seconds ago.

The man in the cell wasn't human... But he wasn't Chimera... And he sure wasn't a normal hybrid either, judging by the busted cocoon next to him. With his mouth hanging open at a painfully wide angle, his saliva dripped between the 2 inch long canines that had taken the place of his original teeth. Soft skin changed to tan, hard scales. Amphibious hands with silver, sharp claws were softly reflecting light from a bulb in the ceiling of the room. His blue eyes focusing on the Carbine in his hands, but there were two extra eye sockets on the side of his head his current eyes... and they were bleeding slowly from the sockets. A large lump in his chest where his heart would be, moving up and down as it softly pumped blood throughout his body. Maybe the most distracting thing about him were his legs. They didn't seem to have any bone structure... At all... They just looked like two empty sacks attached to his body. Apparently... the restructuring of the Conversion process was that horrible... maybe even insanely painful if that person were conscious while it happened.

He thought about opening the cell to carry the man out of the center with him, but stopped because of the condition the man was in. Even if he could open the cell, he doubted he could drag the man with him _and_ defend himself from the facility's alien guards. Suicide by the hand of an ally wasn't a good way to go... Not to mention his saliva and the liquid from the cocoon would ruin his _great_ blood-stained uniform. No really... he thought it made him look like a bad ass.

"Sorry, but I'll come back when I have the proper backup and supplies to get you out of here", he said, not looking at the man's face, instead at the razor sharp teeth in his mouth. No way would he survive by the time he got back with him... if he wasn't converted

He knew the man wouldn't survive that long... If the Hybrids didn't finish the process or kill him... The blood loss coming from his extra eye-sockets would.

"No, you have to... _hagh_ kill me!" he said, coughing slightly.

"Sorry, but I can't do that.... Ammo conservation and all"

" You're just like... _haaaagh _me! Is it because _haaagh _you don't want to lo-_haaaagh_-look at what you'll become?!"

"No.", he said, not looking at him in the face, but thought sadly, _"Yes"_

"Then.. then... end.... it...", he said, now pausing for breath.

"No.", Private Barklen said sternly.

"You have to!", he screamed, rage clear in his voice.

"I said I'd be back when I had the proper tools to h--"

_"SCRALAAAA!!"  
_

"AAAAAAH!!", the soldier screamed, falling to his knees and covering his ears to block out the noise. They were strong enough for him to feel the vibrations!

Looking around, expecting some kind of attack. He didn't believe it was the man... He seemed to have kept his humanity.... Or had until he realized it was the man in the cell, but now every inch of his eye was gold.

And judging by how the former man seemed to be straining his voice so that his screech was louder... That could only mean one thing.

That bastard was calling for help!

_"You realize that while you sit here and think about it, the creatures you refer to as... 'Hybrids' are coming to investigate the sound?",_ the mysterious voice from before asked.

He looked at the cell then saw a pressure pad on a pedestal with wires going to the cell's direction. Gritting his teeth, he slammed his palm, which hurt for a second from the impact on the hard object, onto the pressure pad and the dome-like door shot up from the bottom. Not wasting a second, Micheal opened fire on his 'brother's' face. The screaming stopped immediately and went down until it was just a few low whimpers of pain, before stopping completely.

"Glib shouba kaska!", something with a deep and rage filled voice screamed from behind him.

"Son of a bitch!", was all he said before he jumped into the open cell, bolts of energy flying where he was a moment ago. And he kicked the dead half converted body in anger, since it was it's fault that he was found.

He peeked his head around the corner to see 3 Hybrids standing out in the open, waiting for him to walk out into firing range.

He didn't need to panic... That would make the situation 10 times worse... So he had to keep calm and figure a logical way out.

_"Okay... Just fire and hide behind cover until they're dead..", _he thought while smiling slightly, then frowned as he heard a door opposite to the one the Hybrids came through open.

"Sha meka snotsa?", a voice deeper than a Hybrid's said with curiosity, and a bit of annoyance.

"Craaa...", one of the Hybrids replied.

Micheal's eyes narrowed as he concentrated on the heavy footsteps, and some of the little bits of information he'd just picked up.

The first was that whatever had just entered the hall sounded heavier than the Hybrids. The second, thanks to his advanced hearing, showed him that the thing was walking away from his position. And the third... okay, that was what confused him the most, he heard something louder than a Bullseye fire, but it sounded like it hit something solid.... but he could hear a low whizzing sound.

_Crr...whzzzzzzzzzz..._

He looked up at the glow on the wall across from him, only about 8 feet away, he saw a strange bolt of energy tunneling through the wall in front of him. He rolled to the side in an instant and the energy bolt nailed the spot where his chest was a moment again and continued to drill through the wall.

He'd seen those types of energy bolts before... they came from a weapon called an Auger, perhaps the deadliest hand-held weapon in the Chimeran inventory. It's shots could plow through walls, gaining a little bit of power with each obstacle they passed through, making it a good weapon to have in places where your enemy had objects to hide behind. Once it made it to an organic object, it would continue to go through it, even to the point where it would damage internal organs... One shot wasn't enough to kill someone though. And then there was the the Chimera that were armed with these weapons... Steelheads. They were much stronger than Hybrids, but they did have a tendency to hide behind cover and use the Auger to plow through their enemy's cover while others were distracting them by firing at them. Luckily, once they were discovered, it would be easy to avoid getting hit since the Augers had a slower firing rate than a Bullseye.

But still, he was faced with a problem, either stay in there and most likely get shot with the Auger until his organs were incapable of functioning properly, or go out there and take them all on at once. Even if he saw the Auger's shots coming, the Hybrids would eventually come into the cell and he'd be fucked. He looked around the chamber, then at the Carbine in his hand as he remembered it's nifty secondary firing ability. A fast firing rate _and_ a built in grenade launcher! How could he screw that up? Checking, he saw that it had 3 grenades in it.

_"Perfect"_

Another bolt was tunneling through the wall, as he ran out of the cell, his attention immediately focused on the trio of Hybrids that seemed to be a little closer to the cell than he remembered. Pulling the secondary firing trigger on the Carbine , which was right behind the first, he released one of the grenades and it fired immediately after hitting one of the Hybrids in the chest. Watching in vengeful glee as the remains splattered the surrounding areas but was cut off when a sharp pain came from his back, then went through and out of his chest.

"Okay... _that_ hurt...", he said between breaths and turned around to see another bolt fire from the Steelhead's Auger, which he dodged this time.

Even though he only saw and never fought a Steelhead before, he did see a few of his comrades die with partially disintegrated organs.

The tall, muscular light brown Chimera wasn't too much different from a Hybrid... Except bigger. The large cylinder forcefully inserted into it's back for a cooling device was much more slender (and harder to hit) than the spikes that the Hybrids had on their backs. Metal pants over it's legs to protect itself, like any human-sized Chimera that was meant for battle. Finally, the object that earned it it's name was the blackish-grey helmet over it's head, with several focused on him in rage... Or he thought it was since the glasses on the helmet for the Steelhead to see covered any emotion.... Not that he knew if they had any emotions.

It roared and fired several Auger shots at him, practically in a straight line, but Micheal stepped to the side and prepared for the monster's clip to run out so that he could finish the short battle.

The Steelhead stiffly followed his target's movements, but he and his target knew that he would run out of ammo soon. He hadn't even bothered to reload while firing at him in the cell! Five days after being released from the cocoon, and already staring death in the face... The military training was there, but it was buried under the over confidence that the Chimera had felt. Confidence from a stronger, more durable and quickly regenerating body. Plus, the lack of any real emotion besides anger had left out any real spots for logic and strategic thinking, and now he wished he'd had them. The older Steelheads had learned from experience, but since he was alone, and facing a faster opponent, he knew he'd die soon, and the slight smirk on his target's face only made the crushing blow of reality more painful. As soon as the _click click _sounds registered to his brain, he gave up on reloading and simply resorted to another, perhaps more dangerous option: He charged the armed human.

Micheal's bullets into the Steelhead's chest and stomach, but that didn't stop it... especially not when his own gun ran out of ammo, and before he could use the built-in grenade launcher, he was soon pistol whipped by the Steelhead's Auger. In retaliation, Micheal slammed the butt of his gun into the thing's throat, stunning it, but remembered that if he had had enhanced healing... So did the alien. His mouth tightened at what he was about to do, and he slammed the butt of the gun into the monster's teeth, bending several backwards while others were knocked out of their sockets and into it's throat. That was the disgusting part... this was where it pretty much guaranteed instant death.

Micheal flipped the gun around and slammed the muzzle of it into the thing's mouth, and into the throat, and began trying to push it in.

Happy that the alien's mouth was ridiculously wide, otherwise it would have been impossible to fit the Carbine in it, it continued to force the piece of metal down the thing's throat in an attempt to make it suffocate.

When the creature's gripped the part of the gun that wasn't in it's mouth and began trying to push it out, it was starting to succeed in the contest of brute strength. Until Micheal decided that there was only one option left...

_VRRRBOOOM!!!_

Micheal flew away from the Steelhead as he activated the Carbine's secondary fire into the Steelhead's mouth.

_".... Somehow I enjoyed that waaaay too much.", _he thought as he eyed the corpse. Deciding it was probably just from relieving his frustration on something, he walked to the remains of the Steelhead's body... which were just a pair of legs. He sighed with relief when he found ammo for the Auger attached to a belt on the Chimera's waist. Stuffing the ammo into one of the extra pockets on the side of his hip, he grabbed the Auger itself and stopped to look at the Bullseyes. He really wanted to take the fast firing weapons with him, but he could only carry one weapon at a time.

_"If you're finished playing around, you should come to me _now_!"_

_"Playing around?! I could have been killed!"_

_"Please, those lesser beings were no match for you.", _it replied, a sarcastic edge in it's voice.

_"Flattery... How... Fake you sound.", _Micheal responded, pausing between words.

_ "...Though you are clearly inexperienced in battle since you were in the military for such a short amount of time and... Is that why you're fighting for your country?"_

Instantly narrowing his eyes in anger at what the voice had just said... it was looking at his memories! There were just things that were meant to be kept to a person! Like his memories... which were only supposed to be reachable by him. And the embarrassing secret of _why _he joined the army.

_"Stay out of my head!", _he growled, and he even saw yellow for a few seconds.

_"Don't you dare give me orders you worthless creature", _ it growled back with a cold and dominating tone which made Micheal stop and make some part of him whimper in submission, then it was replaced by anger but he doubted the voice could sense it because it didn't comment, _"I could have turned you in to the guards and you'd be dead or possibly converted by now, but you're alive because of me! Now I demand the respect I deserve for leading you this far, or I will tell the others where you are and you __**will **__be captured!"_

_".... Yes sir...",_ he mentally whimpered, he hated submitting to this thing! If it could communicate with him, someone who wasn't completely infected, it could have easily alerted the other Chimera to his location since it was following him almost effortlessly, _"I'll be there as soon as I can."_

_"Good boy", _it said, a hint of mocking laughter in it's voice.

Micheal said nothing, but walked to the end of the T-interjection with his head down low and turned a corner at two arrows, the left pointing to C, the right pointing to E, with a D in the middle of them and a 'You Are Here' sign above it. Turning to the left, he kept walking until he made it to A-section without anymore encounters with the guards of the facility. Letting his eyes examine the scenery around him, he took in the slightly different environment.

The domed glass cells were much larger than the ones he just previously saw. But that wasn't what caught his eyes. Although most of the cells were empty, the one to his right was occupied by some large, gray creature.

It's honey-bee like body was barely fit into the cell, even if it was larger, it looked like it only had a few inches of space to move around in. It's six, golden eyes staring at him with some sort of anticipation. The insect-like arms and the four long, armor covered legs only made the large creature more intimidating... And it was twice his height when it was sitting down.

"Oh shit", was all he said when he realized that he was going to release the creature, most likely going to cause some sort of misery to it's enemies.

Even though the monster should have been scaring him, he didn't feel as much fear as any normal human would. It wasn't that he enjoyed the thing's company, but more of less he was still pissed at what it had done and said earlier.

_"Unlock the door..."_

No way was he going to do that! He wasn't a traitor! He wasn't completely human anymore but he sure as hell wasn't about to set something that was obviously intelligent free into the world. Besides, the thing didn't exactly have a trust-worthy feeling around it. Then again, six eyes would be intimidating, no matter how large the being they were attached too.

Micheal carefully thought about the scenarios that could occur if the creature were released, most of them ending with him being headless...

* * *

It could easily read the human's mind. It could read the creature's mind more easily now, maybe it was because it was closer, or maybe because it's mind was now more like a Chimera's. If only a little bit. The violence it had demonstrated against the strain that it referred to as a Steelhead was proof that it was being changed. It could have simply knocked it onto the ground and given it a quick death... but instead, it took the sadistic way and tried to suffocate the creature. And now... It was thinking about something unimportant, like if it would let it free.... of course it would, even if it tried to resist, it had (limited) control over the hybrid.

It needed to hurry now, before another of it's species came and discovered that it was escaping. That bastard... Daedalus... it had locked it in the cell. What was worse was that it's brothers, the other 'Angels' as the humans labelled, them, let it happen. Even though the new leader had the knowledge of all of the Chimera previous with the DNA running through it's veins, it was still partly human. Either way, it found their species as nothing but a handicap to the Chimeran race, but the Chimera always evolved... in fact, the Spinners that were being deployed were apart of that evolution... conversion centers were being dismantled at a quick pace and soon this one would be useless and turned into another facility for the war.

No matter what, the new leader, Daedalus, was capable of, it couldn't monitor EVERYTHING at once... sooner or later a mistake would occur.

* * *

_"But the those metal claws could cut me eas--"_

_"**HUMAN!!!!**",_ the large Chimera mentally yelled at him, and he stopped and looked at the creature's face.

Okay, he would not let this monster go. Even if it threatened to hurt him, what could it do behind a 5-inch thick glass cell? Nothing! Maybe he could even laugh in it's face... but it said that it could alert others to his presence, and then he'd probably never see the light of day again. Well, which was worse? Being killed, being painfully converted to have extra objects in his anatomy, or possibly helping the enemy and screwing your race over but still be converted? All three fantastic options.

Taking a deep breath, his eyes staring firmly into the beast's and said one word that he would later regret, "No."

That's when everything went down, and he wished he'd wished he just ran as yellow flashed in his eyes. Then a loud _thump_ as an object smashed into him and he was laying a few feet away from the cell door.

_"I was going to reward you for freeing me, but having to make you do it by force... well, that calls for punishment...",_ baring it's teeth at him, it took him a second to realize it was smiling.

Chimera or not, it was _never _good when the enemy smiled at you, _especially_ after you just pissed them off.

Quickly getting up to his feet and staring at the open cell, he raised his Auger at the monster and prepared to deploy the shield at the slightest hostile move... like when it opened it's large mouth and saliva dripped out.

_"Eww."_

"GET IT OFF ME DAMN IT!!!", a low, rough voice yelled from somewhere and they both turned their heads to the source.

_"SCRAAAAA!!!",_ an inhumanly high-voice screeched before a gunshot was heard then footfalls that were steadily getting louder.

The creature stared at the direction of the sounds, then back at Micheal, and finally left the cell, dashed away to the hallway opposite of the one he just came from, and turned a left. Micheal stood up and put his Auger in a firing position. If they were human, at least he presumed it was they unless the voice was talking to itself, they would be more likely to take someone with fire-power to them instead of a defenseless civilian who was infected. But he was a solider that was infected, there was a difference.

_"Still better to stay safe and lie my way out"_

The footsteps were growing louder, indicating that there was more than one person.

Okay, all he needed to do was keep away from dark places to not let his eyes glow... or was it light places.... damn. Alright, he just needed something he could use to fool the people and hopefully get back to whoever gave him the 'cure' so that he could know what the hell was happening to his body. Blacking out and most likely eating a human corpse is something that would require attention after all.

Someone entered the end of the hall that he'd just come from, dressed in standard military clothing with a helmet on, he could see that it was a rather pale man with five-o-clock shadow on his face and dark bags under his eyes, but he seemed to be pretty focused despite the apparent lack of sleep.

Staring at the man, Micheal looked at the man's face, but avoided making eye contact. The man, however just looked at him for a few seconds, looking for any claws or scales, tilted his head to the side indicating that he wanted to be followed, and moved in the same direction in the hallway that he'd use to get to the creature, followed several other individuals who only paid him half-second glances....

_"Well, at least I'm not looking down a barrel."_

Following the soldiers quietly, he figured they'd question why he was there, but he guessed at the moment that that wasn't their biggest concern. They must have been there for some reason.

".... Are you guys here to destroy this center?", he asked, knowing the answer would be yes...

"Yeah, but we're also here to save the ones that aren't infected yet.", the pale man from before said in calm, almost emotionless voice.

"Okay, so how many have you found so far?"

"....."

_"Why does everyone keep doing that?! I don't ask stupid questions... do I?"_, Micheal thought, then angrily glared at the back of the soldier's head. He was almost tempted to break his neck... Why the hell was he so aggressive now?!

"Groab lesbastan!", a rough voice screamed from somewhere, and they all held up their weapons, looking for the source.

Micheal focused on the sounds of footsteps, and realized that they were coming from both ways of the hallway.

"I think they're comin' from both sides!", someone yelled... Well, he apparently wasn't the only one with good hearing.

The pale man with the rifle looked at Micheal, then his Auger and told him to activate it's secondary fire on both sides of the group.

"Activate the Auger's secondary fire!", a voice yelled, then realized that Micheal probably didn't know what he meant since he probably wasn't as experienced as her and added, "There's a hollow plate on the side of the gun! Open it and take out one of the things inside and press the button to activate the shield!"

Doing as the man said, he grabbed a he grabbed one of the small, one inch disks, pressed the button that was the light in the center of the disk, put it on the ground and watched as the shield activated, then repeated on the other side of the hallway while dodging bullets.

"Kid, you're gonna need to shoot the first through. Our weapons can't pass through the shields, but yours can!" the pale man said, and Micheal nodded and aimed the Auger at one doorway.

The soldiers... Marines... whatever they were were using the shield as cover as they occasionally came from behind it to shoot at a Hybrid that got a little too close.

5 Hybrids emerged from it in almost triple-file, and he opened the slow, but powerful shots from the energy weapon.... one bolt passed through the shield and through a Hybrid's head, still going and hitting another one, but the ones behind them were smarter than that and ducked. He could hear other growls and footsteps running from behind him... the ones from the other end of the hallway had arrived.

"They're going to run through the shield!", someone, a female voice said.

"Fire as soon as they do!"

"But they'll fire as soon as their on the other side!"

"They'll be stunned for a few seconds!"

Micheal couldn't listen to them as he continued firing the Auger, through the shield and into the Hybrid's chests, heads, and stomachs. Although, he could hear the words 'Armored Hybrids'.

He could hear one get through the shield behind him, then a Rossmore shotgun fired and the thing fell to the ground with a thump.

"The shield's starting to deactivate!", someone behind him yelled, but he kept firing through the now flickering shield.

"Just keep firing!", someone else said.

Sure, he could have put another shield up, but that would have given the Chimera enough time to fire and possibly kill them... Or worse.

The shields deactivated completely.

_BOOM!!!_

A Frag Grenade exploded behind him and more bullets flew pass his body, towards the Chimera that were on his side of the hallway. A Rossmore shotgun fired and one of the Hybrids had a giant hole in it's chest. One of their heads was blown off by another shot, and the other had it's head filled with 3 precise bullets to the forehead from a Marksman. Micheal ducked as several shots came from Bullseye armed Hybrids and a heavy thud was behind him.

"Maddie, that Marksman's not effective at this close range, keep your distance!", a man yelled from behind him, then another Rossmore shot occurred and another Hybrid fell down as it's chest exploded and it's enlarged heart landed on the floor behind it.

Another shot was heard and a Hybrid stood there with a hole in it's forehead with it's mouth gaping as blood slowly pooled out, but the wound was starting to heal over the bullet, until...

_BOOM!!!!_

It's head exploded in all directions, the blood and pieces of skull flying into the eyes of the Hybrids next to and behind it.

"Damn it, why'd _only _you get the Magnum?!"

"Stop whining and keep shooting!"

"DIE YOU BASTARD!!!", someone screamed, and a single bullet pierced a Hybrid's forehead and even went _through_ it to the other side, and nailed another one in an eye.

"John, who upgraded your weapon like that!?"

One of the Hybrids threw out a Hedgehog Grenade, and that's when everyone turned and ran deeper down the hallway and towards the now dead carcasses of less Chimera.

"Why the hell can't we just leave now?!", someone asked.

"Because they'd alert everything in this base that we're here! Or they might follow us!", someone else responded.

"Just throw another Frag so that we can get this over wi--", the person stopped and another thud was heard.

"Nick!"

Micheal growled; even if they were close outside of the battle field, it was still pretty hard to focus on the Hybrids while they were practically yelling in his ear! He even considered telling them all to shut the hell up so that he could focus, but they all had lethal weapons, looked like they were tired from numerous encounters with Hybrids recently and looked like they would fall asleep at any moment and one might _accidentally_ shoot him... And it might just be that it was _coincidence_ that it was in his head.

A Frag Grenade was thrown pass Micheal from a soldier and landed into the crowd of Hybrids. Looking down, most of them began to run away from the inanimate object, but the tight spaces of the hallway didn't exactly allow for them all to get back in time. At least five of the former-humans were caught in the explosion, and once again, the gore splattered on the walls and in the Chimera's faces, temporarily blinding them.

"We can get out now! They can't follow us if we close all the doors behind us!", a young man's voice said.

"Zeke you smart bastard! The one problem with your plan is--", a female's voice said.

"Some of doors can only be locked with the DNA of an infected person.", another voice interrupted.

_"Well, maybe we won't run into any doors that need an infected DNA signature?",_ Micheal thought, feeling somewhat troubled about the fact that 3 men and 2 women would probably have filled his body with bullet holes. After all, they just met, why would they feel _any_ sort of connection to him? Besides... he was getting the strange feeling that something wasn't right about these people. Well, at least one of them anyway... it made him feel like he was--

"Kid, stop starin' at the ground and get over here before they get that shit outta their eyes!"

"So you suggest we run while they're blinded?"

"Are you always such a smart ass?"

* * *

"So Johnson, do we try to destroy this place or get out?", one of the male soldiers, Zeke, asked.

"One group has to blow it up while the other makes sure there's a clear exit path", the pale man from before said.

"So which team am I on?", Micheal asked.

"You're going to help us make a path to the exit.", the man replied as emotionless as ever, "If you're infected, I want to make sure you're near me and away from my comrades."

"Do you even know where an exit is?"

"We passed a few heavily guarded ones on the South of the tower", a girl, Maddie they called her, interrupted, then pulled a compass out of an extra-pocket on her cargo pants.

"So we just go to the South of this place?"

"Yeah, and the reactor core is in the... core of the tower"

* * *

Maddie didn't know why, but the guy they'd found in the hall with empty cells was giving him strange feelings... like he was hiding something. The way he seemed to stay behind the rest of them seemed to make the feeling stronger. Maybe it was just her imagination? No, the man's awkward movements said that he was hiding something... and she was infected so paranoia was almost always a side-effect.

Maybe he was a foreign spy that was gathering intelligence on the Chimera? Or maybe he was infected... but most of the ones that were infected seemed hostile towards everyone until the they had the perfect chance to strike alone.

The way the man seemed to keep his eyes on the ground when facing one of them... yep, there was something off about him, but she couldn't tell what. Then again, the man could have been nervous that they wouldn't make it out alive. She'd let it go, for now.

* * *

The last Hybrid fell to the ground from Maddie's Marksman and the group of 3 proceeded to the nearest exit of the tower. Well, Zeke and Johnson had gone to destroy the reactor core of the tower and that left Micheal alone with Maddie and a girl named Carly... and so far, everything was fine. Well, that was a lie since Maddie kept glancing at him then down the hallway while Carly guarded the door to make sure no Chimera came from outside. To be honest, the staring was making him uncomfortable... almost like she knew something about him. He wished he could feel more powerful, stronger, faster, and not be....

* * *

The Hybrid from before watched as the two humans made their way into the large room with a large cylindrical object in the middle. It stared down at the bloody leg of a child it had been eating to be alerted by it's heightened senses and notice them.

Since one male had a Fareye and could easily snipe him from the top of the ladder he was on. Luckily it was in the shadowed corner since all of the stronger lights were focused near the center of the room. How else could the machine be fixed if they couldn't see it properly? Enhanced vision or not, better to be safe and prepared. And the Magnum the other had holstered... well, that thing was deadly at close range... so it wouldn't matter which way. The Bullseye was a good weapon for close-range combat, but it would be suicide to attack it directly with no more cover than shadows to hide in... so it did the only thing it could, it called it's 'brothers' telepathically.

"Johnson watch for Chimera while I plant the grenades onto it", the male (Zeke) spoke.

The other male, Johnson, nodded and took off the flashlight from his belt and shined it around the room... unknowingly frustrating the Hybrid to practically resort to begging instead of asking for assist from it's brothers.

It was just about to get up and run to another shadow, until the male distracted it.

"Carly, the charges have been set and we're on our way back. Over."

"Grosh delsa tobaba!!!", a voice yelled from the other side of the room and Johnson spun around to see 5 Hybrids enter the room.

The male opened fire and the intelligent Hybrid rushed down the stairs to the pair of distracted enemies.

A Hybrid had it's head explode from the force of Johnson's Fareye.

Another one fell over as it's head exploded from a Magnum's explosive bullet that the other human had. Unknowing of the danger approaching from their rear as the Hybrid got closer....

Johnson decided that it was taking too much time and threw a Frag Grenade at the now 4 Hybrids and watched as they jumped to avoid being hit... well, 2 survived.

Zeke screamed, and Johnson turned around to see a Hybrid covered in armor with a small cooling pack similar to a Steelhead's had it's arm around Zeke's neck, and the other was on the side of his face.

_Crrrack!!_

It let the man's body fall limp to the ground as his neck was easily broken and turned to him, and he prepared to fire the Marksman at it when several bolts of energy blasted through his chest and stomach from behind. The intelligent Hybrid walked to the bomb and it prepared to deactivate it...

* * *

"So, how long have you been in the army?" Micheal asked Maddie, who just stared at him, then kept looking down the hallway for any signs of movement, "How about you Carly?"

"Well, about 4 years now", she replied with a slightly aged voice, and looked at the outside entrance blankly.

Not a very talkative group...

Micheal just stared at the hallway, then cringed as his head hurt suddenly, and he looked ahead into the hallway, almost as if he could see something through the walls. He could feel his feet take a step forwards, but he stopped himself and focused on the outside entrance with Carly. It got pretty boring staring at one place for more than a few minutes, so they decided to mix it up and give everyone a chance to look down both ways... and Micheal could look freely from either-way since the others were on duty and he wasn't technically a part of their team, but it was annoying for one of them to briefly moving to pop a stiff neck or back. And with his newly enhanced hearing, he could swear that they kept sounding weaker with each pop.

Their radios came to life and Zeke's voice came out of the small object.

"Carly, the charges have been set and we're on our way back. Over."

"Grosh delsa tobaba!!!", a voice yelled from the radio.

"You think we should help them?", Micheal asked.

"Don't worry, they're good enough to take care of a few Hybrids." Carly responded, confidence radiating from her voice and face.

A minute and a half later and still no radio-contact. Carly took her radio off of her belt - which had a hook on it so that it could stay there- and called to make sure they were already. But after a few seconds of communicating and after nothing happened, she sighed and looked at Maddie in the face.

"We have to leave now, otherwise they'll start sending waves to the exits."

"... How do you know that?", Micheal asked.

"They were former soldiers, some remember how our tactics worked, now let's go!"

* * *

Aww, too bad the human characters with names had to die... but I couldn't just put a bunch of nameless people in. Well I could have, but I just wanted to stand out. I wanted to give the feel that they were a team and possibly friends, and were on a first name basis... well, most of them were. And by the way, I'm not going to center entirely on one person's point of view (Micheal). Sorry this came in late, stuff kept coming up and I barely had the time to write this. I noticed Micheal's spelled Michael, but I'll just leave it like that...

And the Chimera that Micheal forcefully released was an Angel. It's gray instead of tanned yellow is for a reason. And no, the Hybrid isn't just a random character. I swear it's like this machine is rewriting what I'm editing right now, so if there are any changes that I made, it's this machine's fault. And the thing that made Micheal join the military is quite amusing, I even felt a little bad for him, but I can't say he's the only person with that problem...


	3. Dr Jerkoff

My muse finally came to me!.... Then beat me up until I wrote this! And see, this is much sooner than last chapter.

And I toned it down since this is rated T now. Well on the cursing part... the violence... kind of depends on what your rating of what should and shouldn't be censored is. And not much action happens here, but something does happen. Wait... that depends on what your definition of action is. And before you get any ideas, it's not _that _kind of _action. _And this is up way earlier than last chapter. And a little favor I'd like anyone who's reading this to do for me. I need you to help me improve my grammar and writing style, either in the form of a review or a PM.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Resistance franchise, Insomniac does. I own this though, and anyone not in the game. If I owned Resistance, not every level / cut scene would be about going into combat... But 90% of them would be.

* * *

Chapter 3: Dr. Jerkoff

Carly, Micheal, and Maddie were walking through the deserted remains of the town, but for some reason didn't encounter any Chimeran forces. Carly in the lead, Micheal behind her, and Maddie just behind him. Mostly because he was being watched to make sure that he didn't try anything on either of them. An eerie silence taking place between the group. And it was Micheal that broke it.

"I thought you guys said this place was full of those aliens", Micheal said, desperate to start up a conversation since he hadn't really talked to anyone, human, without his life being in danger at the time.

"Well, when we came through earlier, we had to duck behind abandoned cars and move very fast when out in the open", Carly answered in a bored tone, not even looking at him.

"You think they all went back to their base because of what we did?", Maddie suddenly joined in.

"Most likely", the older woman replied.

"How far away are we from the camp?"

"It took us 7 hours to get here before", Carly answered, and stopped talking making Micheal assume she was finished.

_"Sh--"_

But then continued, "But since it doesn't look like we'll need to hide from Chimera so much it shouldn't as long, but we should still go in well shadowed places, and places with many objects", Carly said, a hint of laughter in her voice at imagining what he was thinking.

Micheal nodded and kept on walking, glaring at her for a second for her mean joke.

But instead of saying what he was thinking, he suddenly asked, "Here anything good on the radio?"

"Yep", Maddie replied.

The group of soldiers spent the rest of the way to the camp talking about radio shows and such. As well as man kind's greatest invention... the television, and how they planned to buy one when the war was over. But that wasn't important... What was important was that with the interesting subjects distracting them and making time go by, they made it to the camp quickly, when in reality they had been walking for a long time.

It wasn't anything impressive, just a bunch of warehouses with items moved into them. Dozens of people were either sleeping in beds with the large warehouse doors open, or talking with their friends. Some kids were playing hide-and-seek nearby. All in all, it didn't look totally depressing like he'd imagined it would... But then again he imagined people to be wearing dirty clothes, trash lying everywhere, and possibly a little bit of cannibalism.

A slightly short African-American man walked towards them eyeing Micheal up and down for a second. Even though the man was shorter than him, the muscular arms looked much stronger than his skinny ones.

"Was this guy sent on the mission with you two?", he asked curiously, not a hint of hostility in his voice.

"No Joey, we found him in the Conversion Center." Maddie answered.

_"Joey?"_ "Uhm... Joey Cartland?", Micheal asked, making sure it wasn't someone else with the same first name as the person he'd made radio contact with inside of the Conversion Center.

"How do you know my na--"

"It's me, Micheal Barklen... We talked over the radio", the soldier interrupted.

"Oh! Nice to meet you!", he said, then with a bit of hesitation from the fear that he could grow claws any minute, held out his hand.

After a brief handshake, the man looked at him with seriousness on his face.

"Even though you said you weren't infected, you still need to go to the infirmary where our... Doctor will take a look at you. Maddie can you escort him?"

She nodded and signaled for Micheal to move ahead while she guided him. About 2 minutes later, they passed to a large warehouse with beds that had several people in them, most covered in bandages and some of them having red spots coming through. Several male and female nurses walked around, changing dirty or blood-stained bandages. Micheal turned and prepared to walk in since Joey said to go to the doctor.

"It's the next one.", Maddie stopped him.

"But he said to go to the doctor."

"Not that kind of doctor, one that'll check you for infection."

"...And if I'm infected?"

"He'll request we point guns at your head while he gives you an inhibitor treatment"

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes."

"... A lot?"

"Yes."

_"Damn"_

They came to the warehouse after that and walked in. A few soldiers were there, but it didn't look like they were being treated for signs of infection, most likely just security. An assistant came up to Micheal and Maddie, not being within arm's reach of them and said the Doctor had prepared inhibitor treatments. Then she pointed to a long curtain in the back of the warehouse and told them to go back there. Slowly the duo made their way to the back.

"Doctor Trocky is a bit strange... I'm not even sure if SRPA trusts some of his methods.", Maddie said to start some kind of conversation.

Micheal knew who SRPA was.... mainly a group of people, some infected, that fought that Chimera mostly in America. Although sometimes they'd help other countries if they really needed it. But that wasn't what caught his attention.

"And what are his methods?"

"Injecting infected people with some kind of drug that causes an adrenaline boost."

"And that's bad because...?"

"They feel like they were hooked a hundred times by a heavy-weight boxer after it wears off and they usually need to rest for a while."

Micheal just stared at her for a moment, then started at the curtain in front of them. Why did he have to go to lunatics? Then opening a part of the curtain, he walked inside.

The first thing he noticed was the fact that there were several guards with Carbines that were immediately aimed at him and Maddie, mostly him. A warning that they'd shoot him if he tried anything, but he couldn't really see if they were smiling under their black helmets, which matched with their black uniforms. With no differing facial features since the helmets had gas masks that covered their faces, they looked exactly the same, except for a few differing inches in height... And the numbers and squad information on their uniforms.

And the doctor wasn't the typical look for a supposed mad scientist. The doctor standing in front of was an average looking guy with blond hair that looked like it had been recently cut and a mole on his left cheek. But compared to the fact that he had a stubble-free face and not covered in dried up blood, he was much more attractive.

And only a few feet behind the doctor, another long curtain... With a strange smell coming from whatever was behind it.

"Let me guess, they found you in the Conversion Center?", the blond man asked with smugness clear in his voice since he already knew the answer.

Micheal tried to think of some kind of sarcastic remark, but a glance at the guards with Carbines aimed at him was enough to put that part of him to silence.

"Well, then, let me test you first for signs of infection...", the doctor said, going over to a table and picking up a shiny object that blended in well with the gray-ish white papers that it was laying on so he couldn't see exactly what it was unless he got closer... But again the guns pointed at him were making him feel uneasy.

Micheal just thought he'd take a blood sample, and hopefully it wouldn't come up he was infected... Who the hell was he kidding, the blood would probably stop before they put a band-aid on it. He was just about to think he'd be fine until he focused on the object and realized that it wasn't a needle. It was a combat knife.

The doctor brought up the knife and stabbed it into the palm of his hand, and Micheal's jaw tightened to stop himself from yelling in pain. Or punching the doctor.

"Couldn't you have just used a needle?!"

"Yes, I could have. But this is a quicker way. I'll use the needle when I'm sure you're infected."

Micheal just stared at him blankly, slowly realizing that the man had kept his cocky attitude even while saying that.

The man brought over a small glass cup and held it to his hand so that the blood poured in. He grabbed a rag from nearby and wiped the blood off of his palm, and watched as it began to close. After all of the blood was gone, he went over to a desk with several documents on it and some several needles that had spirals going from one end to another, making it look like a strand of DNA with liquid inside of each strand.

"Roll up your shirt sleeve and hold out your--"

"I know how a simple needle works doctor. I'm infected, not an idiot" _"Well that counts as payback on some level..."_

"Well, it's just that some people haven't had shots since they were children"

The man just waited for Micheal to finish, before he slowly pushed the needle into his arm and pressed down on the handle and released some of the fluid into his bloodstream.

"You might want to get to a bed now", he said, and pointed to the curtain behind him.

"I'm fine.", Micheal said, not feeling different. That was until he felt some part of his mind slowly go to sleep.

"I'm not kidding."

Micheal just stared at the man, then remembered the man probably knew more about his body than he did, and began to tread towards the curtain. Opening it he saw several thin beds, and another curtain where the strange smell got stronger. Roughly 8 feet away from the closet, he began to jog towards it. He was close, but unluckily for him his stomach tightened painfully to the point where it felt like his skin was a rubber-band being stretched. But that wasn't the worst part... It was when his legs started to buckle from the suddenly immense weight of his thin body.

_"Note to self... Don't argue with doctors next time..."_, then added as an after thought, _"And make sure not to get an inhibitor treatment if this happens every time."_

Taking wobbly steps, he dropped onto the bed face-first, then weakly turned himself around so that he was on his back. And then the immense about of energy he had, which had gone unnoticed until now, was beginning to leave his body.

"How tired do you feel now?", Doctor Trocker asked with that ever-present cockiness in his voice, a small smile on the corner of his lips.

"....."

"Soldier?"

The doctor looked at Micheal as he blankly gazed at the ceiling, then they moved over to him with his face in a display of anger. But he couldn't tell since his body was demanding sleep by now and was starting to shake as he attempted to stay awake for just a bit longer.

".... If you weren't smiling right now, I'd wouldn't think you weren't enjoying this", and with that, Micheal Barklen passed out.

_"Well, at least he isn't screaming like the others when they're injected their first time."_

Dr. Trocker then turned to Maddie, "Your turn Ms. Kurkten.", and with that, went to retrieve several more needles.

Maddie hated having to receive three more injections more than the soldier they'd picked up in the Conversion Center. For all they knew, he could need a stage 5 treatment, or maybe 6! But one injection would have to do until the doctor did more research on Micheal's condition.

"Can I leave now?", she asked, not really feeling comfortable with what was behind the next set of curtains in the warehouse. Or more specifically, how the doctor would look at her with a strange look in his eyes. The man was _obsessed_ with the Chimera, but since the infected, or Sentinels as they preferred, were the closest relatives to the Chimera, aside from the Cloven, she guessed that was why he looked at her strangely. The most noticeable testament to his curiosity, was in the back. The several captured scouting Chimera being his unlucky victims. Luckily for them though, they were dead by the time they got to him.

"Of course you may.", the doctor replied, looking at her in the eye.

Turning around, she walked out of the door and into a nearby warehouse that served food. And it just so happened to be the one with the largest amount of people. The rest were for sleeping or medical supplies or ammunition that was to be distributed. But luckily for her since she was off-duty now that the mission had failed, she could could focus on the day's events.

_"Idiots send in a team without a backup plan.", _she thought to herself as she grabbed a piece of bread and a sausage and sat down on the ground to eat.

By idiots, she had been referring to the people that came up with a plan to send 1 infected individual and a bunch of humans into a Conversion Center without a backup team. And a backup's backup. Knowing they had an infected individual most-likely made them overestimate her combat abilities. She wasn't Nathan freakin' Hale! Or the un-infected James Grayson... She was just an ordinary person with bad hand in luck.

And besides, most of the Sentinels were killed when most of their ground troops had been ambushed by large numbers of Hybrids and Titans. And when air-support tried to help them, they were shot down by Stalkers. And to make it worse, one of the few people that came along to study the Chimera, Dr. Trocker, if they caught any had survived! So how was she, a single person, supposed to take on an entire base full of monsters that were born to kill!?

A figure clad in a green military uniform walked up to her.

"Uh, Maddie?", a female voice asked.

"What?!", she looked behind her and saw it was Carly, then apologized and asked for her to sit down with her.

Even if the woman wasn't infected, she _did _trust her. Not like the other citizens in the refugee camp, who either moved away when she came, or just ignored her when she tried to start a conversation. It wasn't like she was going to eat them... It was more likely they'd eat each other if the supplies ran out.

"The Major says that he wants to send us in again, and 20 other soldiers, this time without a bomb that has a timer so it's impossible to stop."

"Like what?"

"You'll see. Just rest up for tomorrow, and they said that they want the soldier we found there as well since he's had his inhibitor treatment"

"But what if it isn't enough to stop him from mutating?"

"It should slow it down a little bit until they find out how severe his transformation is. But that's not important, just rest up for tomorrow"

* * *

Not much violence here. And no, this isn't just a filler... It set up the event for the next chapter. And remember, reviews help me get hyped up for the next chapter. And the thing about the televison... It's man's second greatest invention... The first is the internet!

And I'm not too sure if SRPA's a secret organization to the army since... You know, the Chimera invaded the town they were trying to protect.

And I'm not being sarcastic (everyone's new at some point), but if you looked down below this, you'd see the review button. Just put what you thought about the story in. Even short reviews will cut it for me... But if you just put 'U suck', tell me why.


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